The Hugger's Return
by ZVArmy
Summary: Now engaged to Seth Rollins and settled into their new home, the only thing that could make life better for Bayley Martinez is to return to action for WWE. (Seth/Bayley) *Sequel to The New Authority*
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This story is a sequel to The New Authority. I strongly recommend reading that story before starting this one._

* * *

Bayley Martinez stood back and admired her work. "That's me done for today," she decided, stripping off her rubber gloves and dropping them into her bucket of cleaning supplies. If it was possible for there to be a problem with having such a large, immaculately finished house, it was that it had to be kept that way - at least, it did when you were as obsessive about cleanliness as Bayley was. It wasn't as if she had much else to do with her time anyway. She had already been to the gym first thing in the morning, then it had been back to the empty house for the rest of the day.

Seth Rollins, her fiancee, had returned to action for WWE nearly two months earlier, yet she still hadn't gotten the call to do the same. Being kept out of action by the company was almost as frustrating as hardly getting to see her man. How some people spent extended periods of their lives like this, she really didn't understand. Although the reason for keeping her off TV made sense - to give the fans enough time to move on from Commissioner Martinez, her almost universally hated previous character - she just wanted to come back already, regardless of what new gimmick she was given. Wrestling was what she loved to do, and she wanted to be doing it. It certainly beat spending her days repetitively scrubbing the same bathrooms and kitchen.

She walked down the marble staircase, the centrepiece of the house that she had Seth had spent nearly a year renovating from a derelict shell into the kind of house that she could never have dreamed of living in. Learning all about DIY from Seth, as they worked on shaping their dream house had been a thoroughly enjoyable and exciting experience that she would never forget. Stopping in the entrance hall, she stopped for a moment and looked around, as she did most days, thanking God for allowing her to be so lucky in life. She had a wonderful house to live in, her dream job - when she returned to action at least, and she was engaged to the love of her life. No one deserved to be so lucky, but she would definitely take it.

After putting the cleaning supplies away in one of the kitchen cupboards, she took out her phone, wondering what Seth would be doing. He'd be at the arena for that night's house house by now, she realised, probably having a great time with Roman. No, she wouldn't call him. That could wait until later, when Seth was alone in his hotel room. Those video calls always meant so much when they were apart.

The phone's screen lit up as she was looking at it, and the ring tone started to play. It wasn't Seth who was calling her though, she saw. "Oh!" she exclaimed, seeing the name on the display. Was this going to be the call that she had waited so long for?

"Hey, Hunter," she answered, trying not to sound overly excited.

"Hello, Bayley. How are you?" His deep voice was friendly, as was most often the case when they talked.

"I'm really good," she replied. It was true, suddenly. "How are you?"

"Good, thank you." Then it was down to business, as was also often the case with Hunter's phone calls. "I'm sure you've been getting impatient, waiting for us to book your return. Well, I have good news. We need you on Raw Monday night."

"That's great!" Bayley exclaimed, feeling like she wanted to jump up and down in excitement. "I've been itching to come back for so long now, I thought you had forgotten about me," she added as a joke.

Hunter chuckled. "I was hoping you wouldn't figure that out. Seriously though, of course we didn't forget about you. We've just been waiting for the right time to have you return. It's a big change to have you go from your first character to Commissioner Martinez, then go back again."

"I understand you needed..." Bayley began, before she fully processed what he'd said. Even then, she wasn't sure if she'd heard him right. Could it really be true? "What did you say?"

Hunter chuckled again, amused by her reaction. She could hear the smile in his voice as he answered the question. "I said we're going back to your original character. I argued the point before your heel turn that we needed hugger Bayley to be a role model to young people, and I still believe that. No one has ever connected with that demographic like you did, and although you did a great job as the Commissioner, I still think the hugger is the best character for you. Vince agreed to it, so that's what we're going with."

There was no way Bayley could hold in the squeal of delight. "Oh my!" she exclaimed. "I never thought I'd get the hugger character back again! I'm so excited!"

"I can tell that," Hunter said, laughing. "As we speak, instructions are being given for a whole knew line of merch to be designed for you. We're going to get a new entrance video package done, but you can use your old music. We think that's perfect for you anyway, so there's no reason to change it."

"I'm fine with all of that," Bayley said as she sat down at the kitchen island. It felt like the only way she could stop herself running around in excitement. "What's the idea behind my return? Obviously I'm a face, so I think I have a fair idea what you have in mind."

"Monday night we're going to have you return to be Sasha's partner in a tag team match. It's part of the storyline with The Queen's Court, as I'm sure you've already guessed."

He was referring to the relatively new stable which had been built around Charlotte Flair, the formation of which had seen her turn heel again. Both the stable and the creative behind it were things that Bayley liked a lot. Born from the fact that Charlotte had often been referred to as The Queen, the new stable had seen her take on that title in a more literal sense. Nikki Bella, Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss had been given the role as ladies-in-waiting in the Queen's court, as Queen Charlotte referred to them. In reality, they acted like subservient lackeys most of the time, doing the Queen's bidding so that she didn't have to get her own hands dirty. Charlotte's new character had been built in such a way that she watched most of her stable's matches from the stage, where she would sit on a throne, but if things didn't go to plan and she did have to get involved, she invariably destroyed the object of her anger in comprehensive style.

The dynamics of the angle had worked well right from the start, when the three ladies-in-waiting had formed the stable by thoroughly beating down the returning Stephanie McMahon during a segment between her and Charlotte. Nikki had announced, "The Queen is dead, long live the Queen." That had been followed by a coronation segment the following week, where a real diamond-encrusted crown made of gold had been bestowed on Charlotte by the ladies-in-waiting. Replicas of the crown were selling especially well for an item associated with a heel character.

The Queen's Court had been focused on one goal since the stable had formed, which was to see their Queen become the Women's Champion. So far, they had been unsuccessful, as Sasha Banks had defied them at every turn to hold onto the belt, much to the delight of the fans. Adding hugger Bayley to the mix on the fan favourite's side definitely seemed like a good creative idea to Bayley, who was already looking forward to going up against Charlotte and her cronies.

"I love it already," Bayley enthused. "The Queen's Court has gone over so well as a heel stable. Having the chance to go against them will be great. Will I actually be teaming with Sasha, or is that just for Monday night?"

"You'll be friends with each other, but you won't be a team as such. We'll eventually be having several faces stick together against the common enemy as we approach Survivor Series, where we're going to have a five on five elimination match."

Bayley figured that she didn't need to point out that there were currently only four women including Charlotte in The Queen's Court stable, assuming that there must be plans in place to add a fifth in the future. It was a good thing that the two women's rosters had been merged and made exclusive to Raw, or the idea would probably have fallen short simply for lack of numbers.

"This is so great," she said, just as enthusiastically. "I can't wait for Monday now. It's going to be so awesome to be a face again. I'm so happy right now!"

"I'm glad to hear it," Hunter said, sounding a little distracted, possibly by something else that was going on at his end of the call. "Listen, I've got to go. I'll see you Monday."

"Okay, thanks again, Hunter."

Bayley ended the call, then immediately tapped on her list of recent calls. She just had to pass on the exciting news to Seth as soon as she could. There was a real possibility that she might burst if she tried to hold it in until later in the night. Besides, he would be happy to hear the news, knowing how much being kept out of the ring had been getting her down.

* * *

Seth almost failed to hear his phone ringing because he and Roman were both laughing at a video Roman had just shown him on his phone. Having his closest friend on the same roster had been a big help while Bayley wasn't on the road with him. The wrestling business could be a lonely one if you didn't have someone to travel with. Even with Roman around, being away from his fiancee at least five nights a week wasn't something that Seth had found easy over the last couple of months. Some people could do it without being the least bit troubled by it, he knew, but he and Bayley were most definitely not that kind of couple. They were the kind of people who actively sought to spend as much time together as they possibly could, and felt unhappy whenever being together wasn't an option.

"That's your boss," Roman helped out, recognising the ring tone that Seth used exclusively for Bayley.

"Well spotted, genius," Seth quipped back at him with a grin.

"Hello, angel," Roman said, mocking Seth with an overly effeminate voice and using his nickname for Bayley. Seth had really been made to regret accidentally saying it to her in front of Roman and Dean.

Seth tried to shove him towards the door, not proving to be very successful. "Get out of here. Give a guy some privacy."

"Alright," Roman chuckled. "I'll go get us some coffee."

Not wanting to miss the call, Seth answered as soon as his friend left the room and closed the door. "Hello, angel."

"Hey, baby," Bayley replied sweetly. The sound of her voice made him feel warm inside, just the way it always had. Theirs really was a cliche romance in many ways, not that either of them cared in the least about the fact. "I have news."

"Good news by the sound of it?" Seth asked, noticing the excitement in her voice.

"Excellent news," she confirmed. Seth could picture the look that would be on her face, the twinkle in her eyes, and the way she would sometimes bounce up and down when things really got too much for her to contain her energy. It was the cutest thing ever, in his opinion.

"Go on," he encouraged, finding himself grinning like an idiot. Her enthusiasm was so infectious.

"Hunter called me. They're bringing back my hugger character!"

"Oh wow!" Seth exclaimed. No wonder she was so excited. She had missed the hugger character ever since the day she'd been forced to leave it behind. Getting it back again was the one thing she would have wished for, in terms of her career. "That's awesome news, babe. I'm so pleased for you. It's going to be so great to see you out there as the hugger again. The fans are going to go wild for it, too. When are you returning? Monday?"

"Yes, Monday. We're finally going to be back on the road together, Seth. I've missed you so much these past couple of months. It really has been hell being away from you so much. I never want it to happen again."

"Aww," Seth said, wishing he was there to give her a hug. "I know exactly what you mean. I've really missed you. It's going to be so good to get back into our old routine."

"It will. And it will be good to work with Charlotte and the others. I'm going to team with Sash this week on Raw, then we're both going to be in a rivalry with The Queen's Court. I think that will be great."

"I think so too," Seth said, without needing to consider it. Charlotte and the others had quickly become the best female heel team he could remember, and Charlotte herself was the most hated female character since Commissioner Martinez. "You've had some memorable matches with Charlotte in the past, so I have no doubt that you will again. Hopefully they'll give you a title run sooner rather than later, and a proper one this time. It was a real shame they had you drop it so soon on your first run."

He heard the shrug as Bayley replied. "I know, but I can understand why they did it. Being the champ and the commissioner would have been a bit much. A real run as champion as hugger Bayley would really be something though. I hope that happens. But right now, I'm just glad that I'm coming back. I can't wait for Monday night."

"I can't wait for Saturday night," Seth said, turning the conversation in another direction. Saturday night would be the next time he was at home, after being away for nearly a week.

"Neither can I. You know the absolute worst thing?"

"Sleeping in a bed by yourself," Seth replied, without needing to consider that, either.

"Right," Bayley said quietly. "You know, I've been sleeping in one of your T-shirts."

"There's nothing sexier to a man than his girl in one of his shirts, babe," Seth grinned. He just managed to finish the sentence before Roman walked back into the room with two cups of coffee.

"Hey, Bayley," the big Samoan called out.

"Tell him I said hey," Bayley told Seth. "You know what I was just thinking?"

"What?" Seth asked.

"I'll send you a picture tonight before I go to bed, with me wearing your shirt."

"I'd like that a lot," Seth replied, smiling as he pictured it, while carefully chose his words, not wanting Roman to catch onto what they were talking about.

"Okay, I'll let you go," Bayley said kindly. "Call me when you're at the hotel, please."

"Of course I will."

"I love you," Bayley said. Seth could tell she was trying not to giggle as she knew she was putting him in the awkward position of whether or not to repeat it in front of his friend.

"Love you too," he mumbled, not that it did him any good. Roman started silently blowing kisses in his direction. After Bayley ended the call, he stuck a finger up at his friend, even though he knew all of the teasing was good-natured. The truth was that Roman couldn't have been happier to see how well things were going for him and Bayley, and he fully expected to be the best man at their wedding, whenever that happened. "Get off my back, asshole," Seth pretended to gripe at him.

"I'm disappointed, honestly," Roman announced. "I was waiting for you to call her angel." He had to dodge out of the way of the half-empty bottle of water that Seth hurled at him.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: There will be a reference to Roman Reigns' daughter in this chapter. As with The New Authority, I won't be referring to wrestler's family members by their real names as I don't consider it to be appropriate. Therefore, I have made up my own name for Roman's daughter._

* * *

At first, Bayley hadn't been happy when she'd been given her locker room assignment. She knew that the locker room assignment policy had changed during her time off the road, and teams were now expected to share locker rooms. That policy change meant that Seth was now required to share with Roman and Dean, although Dean was currently on the injured list for a few weeks with a badly sprained ankle. They would both have preferred to go back to having a locker room of their own now that Bayley was back on the road, but she had been informed that the women were divided between two locker rooms; The Queen's Court in one, and the rest of the women in another.

Another reason the news made Bayley unhappy dated back to her time as Commissioner of Raw. She had been asked to appear on an episode of Smackdown, after denouncing the show, its wrestlers and its fans for weeks beforehand. At the time, the reaction she'd gotten in the Smackdown locker room had surprised her. The women had seemed off with her, cold, even, as if they believed she really meant the things she had been saying in-character. Even Becky Lynch, who had been her friend for a long time, hadn't had much to say.

Thankfully, when she had arrived for Raw she had been greeted with nothing but kindness by everyone she was sharing the locker room with. It had made her wonder how much of the cold reception that night on Smackdown had been real and how much of it had been in her own head. Either way, she had told herself, it didn't matter now. The girls seemed glad to have her back, especially as her previous character. That was all that really mattered.

"How do I look?" she asked, stretching her arms out wide after finishing changing into her new ring attire, which was very similar to what she had worn for the first iteration of the hugger character. The side ponytail was also back.

"You look the Bayley we know and love," Sasha said, smiling. "It's like you never went away."

"The fans are going to go crazy, particularly the kids," Emma added.

"Right," Becky joined in. "And these things are going to sell like hot cakes." She picked up one of the new items of Bayley merch that were to go on sale that night on WWE Shop, after her return had been shown on Raw. The item in question was a smaller-scale inflate replica of the wacky, wavy tube men that were the centrepiece of her entrance. Available in a choice of bright colours, they had now been rebranded with the catchy and marketable name of Bayley Buddies.

"I love the name," Bayley said excitedly as Becky handed the toy to her. "It's so cute." Then she turned more serious, looking around at all of the women in the room with her as she spoke. "I want to say thank you to you all for being so nice about welcoming me back. I know some of you weren't keen on me while I was playing Commissioner Martinez, but I honestly never meant any of the things I said back then. You all know that, right?"

"Of course we know that," Becky said, scrunching her eyes up in confusion. "Why would you think we didn't know that?"

"Well," Bayley stammered, already put on the back foot by the way the question had been asked. Becky clearly had no idea what she was talking about. "That time I had to come to Smackdown, it seemed like you and the others in the locker room were off with me, like you'd decided you didn't like me or something. It really upset me."

"Come here," Becky said sweetly, getting up and offering a hug, which Bayley gladly accepted. "We thought the same thing about you; like you didn't want to talk to us. You just came in and sat in the corner, and didn't engage when we tried to talk to you. We felt kind of hurt by it at the time. It seems like it was a misunderstanding all round."

"You don't know how glad I am to hear that," Bayley said, gripping her friend in a tight embrace. "It seems so silly now that I was nervous to change in here with you guys."

They all had a good-natured laugh at that, then Bayley made her excuses to leave, wanting to go and see the women in the Queen's Court locker room, after stopping by to quickly catch up with Seth now that she was changed into her new ring gear. The Shield's locker room wasn't far along the hallway, and she was knocking on the door in under a minute.

"Oh, hey, Bayley," Roman said when he opened the door, giving her a warm smile as he stood aside to let her in. "How are you?"

"I'm good, Roman. How are you and the family? It's been ages since I saw you."

"We're all great, thanks," Roman said.

"So, what do you think?" Bayley asked Seth, beaming as she stood in front of him, spreading her arms wide again as she had in her own locker room.

"Cutest girl in the world," Seth announced judiciously. "I'm a lucky dude."

"You got that right," Roman quipped from over in the corner of the room. "What she sees in your scrawny ass, I'll never know."

"Aww, don't pick on my man," Bayley said, feigning sadness. The reality was that she was more than used to the banter that seemed to be a constant part of life on the road with the Shield brothers, no matter what the combination of the three was at any one time.

"What's that you're holding?" Seth asked, taking the bright blue inflatable toy from her and studying it.

"It's a Bayley Buddy," she told him proudly. "Isn't it great? They're making them in a bunch of colours. They go on sale tonight."

"The kids are going to seriously love these," Seth decided, studying the bottom of the toy, where the valve was located to inflate it. "They're all going to want one."

"Can I have a look?" Roman asked, walking over.

Bayley found herself grinning like an idiot as Seth handed the toy to his friend. If only people could see the two tough guys from Shield standing there playing with a Bayley Buddy toy.

"Maya would love one of these," Roman said, referring to his daughter.

"Give her that one," Bayley said. "Tell her I gave it to you to take home for her. And tell her she has the first ever Bayley Buddy."

Roman smiled broadly, still looking down at the toy. "Thanks, Bayley. She'll love it even more, knowing it's the first one and that it was a gift from you. She used to love hugger Bayley."

"So did I," Bayley grinned. "That's why I'm so happy tonight."

"Meanwhile," Seth said, "Roman and I have the pleasure of getting our asses kicked in a four on two match, for the second week in a row.

"Good times," Roman said, with a hint of sarcasm. "Still, I guess it makes sense. They're building up for when Dean comes back, with this whole deal about Shield not being the same when there's only two of us."

They chatted away for a few minutes about the ideas, or lack of them, that creative had for Shield of late before Bayley said, "I can't believe they've not put the tag titles on you since Shield reformed."

"I don't mind that so much," Seth shrugged. "What annoys me is the way they put us back together as a team because they knew people would love it, but they had no idea what to actually do with us when we were back together. I mean, from their point of view it was crazy of them to have me off screen for a month or whatever it was because they got rid of your Commissioner Martinez character. I get that I was kind of associated with it from the past angle of us having an on-screen relationship, but I don't know, it just seems like they made a real mess of the whole thing."

"Maybe things will change in the rumours are true," Roman put in.

"You mean about Vince retiring?" Bayley asked, knowing full well that was what he meant. Although she hadn't been on the road herself, Seth and her friends had of course kept her up to speed with the backstage gossip over the last few months. Rumour had it that with the ratings sliding once more, which, Bayley realised, had probably played a large part in the decision to have her return to her original character, Vince McMahon was considering stepping aside. Whether or not the old man would leave completely or just hand over a large amount of control to Hunter and Stephanie, no one in the locker room knew at this point. Sad as it would undoubtedly be to see Vince go, a lot of people thought it would be for the best, and that creative and booking would improve as a direct result.

"Yeah," Roman said. "I think Hunter would be able to turn it around, in time. It's a shame, but I just don't think the old man has what it takes anymore."

"I'll believe all that when I hear it from the horse's mouth," Seth said cautiously. "I think we'd be seeing signs of things changing already if Vince was leaving. It would be a gradual handover process, not just one day, boom, Vince is gone and Hunter's in charge. That's not how business works."

"That's a good point," Roman conceded.

Bayley had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Maybe it's already happening. What if it wasn't Vince who wanted me to come back as hugger Bayley at all? What if it was Hunter's idea, but they don't want to say so because it would seem odd to us? Even The Queen's Court might have been Hunter's work. Let's be honest, it is pretty good creative. At least, I think it is."

Seth considered that for a few seconds and then nodded slowly. "You know, you just might be right, babe. It was Vince who shelved your character, and he's not usually one to go back to a character that's been done away with. And we know Hunter didn't like the idea of turning you heel. He even admitted that to you at the time, so you can bet there was a big disagreement about it behind the scenes. That's another reason I don't see Vince deciding to go back to it; he's not the kind of guy to admit that he was in the wrong like that."

"Damn," Roman breathed. "You might be right. Maybe it has already started. We'd better not say anything to anyone else though. If word gets around that we're talking about this, whether it's really a thing or not, we could end up in deep shit."

"Right," Seth said as Bayley nodded her own agreement.

"Well, this conversation didn't go they way I thought it would," Bayley chucked a moment later. "Guys, I'm going to go and see Charlotte and the other girls. I'll see you a bit later, okay?"

"Catch you later," Roman said, walking back over to the corner of the room where his case and his ring attire were.

Seth gave Bayley a hug and a kiss on the forehead, possibly her favourite sign of affection. "See you later, babe. It's great to see you so happy."

"Thank you, baby." Bayley gave him a quick kiss on the lips, then left the locker room. Next on her list of things to do was to go find The Queen's Court's locker room, and catch up with Charlotte, her best friend. It had been months since they had seen each other in person; another reason that Bayley had hated her enforced time off from WWE.

A couple of minutes later, Bayley had found the locker room with a small plaque on the door bearing the name The Queen's Court, with a little crown logo underneath. She had to smile as she looked at it, giving the door a knock. There literally could not have been a more perfect character for Charlotte to be asked to play than this one, and she was doing so well with it.

Charlotte opened the door herself a moment later. "Bay!" she exclaimed in delight. "Great to see you! Come in, or do you want to go get a coffee or something?"

"Let's go get a coffee," Bayley smiled, a hint of shyness present in it. She didn't particularly want to have their catch up conversation in front of Nia, Nikki and Alexa - the other members of the stable, who were all in the locker room.

"Sure," Charlotte agreed.

"Bayley!" Nikki called out, walking over towards the door. "Welcome back. Look at that ring attire! That's the Bayley we all missed."

Bayley stepped into the locker room for a minute to say hello to the other women, then she and Charlotte made their way to catering, where they could chat with a little more privacy over a coffee.

"So, how are you enjoying the new stable?" Bayley asked five minutes later when they sat down at a table near the back of the catering area.

"Loving it," Charlotte said enthusiastically. "As you know, I've always preferred being heel to face. It comes so much more naturally to me. And there's no doubt that I have heat with this whole Queen Charlotte angle."

"That's for sure," Bayley said with raised eyebrows. "People really hate you, and the others. It will be great to go up against you all. I think we're going to have some epic matches as this all plays out."

"And hopefully they'll give you a proper run with the belt," Charlotte said, sipping from her coffee cup. "A decent run for hugger Bayley is a no-brainer."

"I'd love that, of course I would. First things first though, it's just awesome to be back, and back as a face at that. You and I had some great matches while I was the commissioner, so I know we will do again. Add the whole team dynamic to it with your Queen's Court and the plan to make a team out of the face characters, and the match they have planned for Survivor Series is going to be off the charts."

Charlotte grinned. "It really is, especially if the negotiations they're in right now work out."

"What negotiations?" Bayley asked, nonplussed.

Charlotte glanced around to make sure no one was trying to listen in to their conversation, then lowered her voice significantly. "Don't repeat this to anyone, okay?"

"Of course not," Bayley said, lowering her voice also and leaning in slightly to make things easier.

"I heard a little whisper that they're trying to bring Ronda in again, on a more regular basis this time. I heard they want her on the face team at Survivor Series."

"Oh, shoot," Bayley breathed, eyes widening as she thought over that prospect. She had done battle with Ronda twice, in both of the wrestling matches that the former UFC star had had so far. The chance to team up with her was something new, and Bayley found herself hoping that whatever whisper Charlotte had heard was true. "A more regular basis, you said?" she wondered aloud. "That means we might get a Ronda - Charlotte rivalry. I'd pay money to see that."

"Or it could be the three of us in a triple threat," Charlotte said, being carried along by her friend's contagious enthusiasm.

"That's Wrestlemania stuff you're talking right there," Bayley said, struggling to sit still out of excitement.

"Obviously I would win," Charlotte said, now pretending like she was in-character.

"Not a chance," Bayley countered, grinning. "Wrestlemania is the time for hug life!"

Charlotte giggled, then took another sip from her coffee. "You know, I really missed having you around, Bay. We all did."


	3. Chapter 3

Waiting behind the curtain, with her return now only moments away, Bayley could barely contain her excitement. She was standing beside Sasha, who was to be her partner for the upcoming tag team match. A few feet away, Charlotte was talking with the rest of the members of The Queen's Court.

"I love their costumes, especially Charlotte's," Bayley said, studying the long robes that the four women were wearing over their ring attire. To fit in with the gimmick, Charlotte's robe was a much more elaborate and expensive-looking design than those of her three ladies-in-waiting.

"I'm just glad I wasn't assigned to be on their team," Sasha replied. "Imagine me wearing one of those things?"

Bayley had to laugh at that mental image. "I would pay to see that."

WWE promos were playing in the arena while Raw was on a commercial break. The two friends stood there waiting for Sasha's music to be cued in companionable silence until Bayley said, "You know, there was a time when this might not have happened."

"What do you mean?" Sasha asked, shifting her Women's Championship belt to her other shoulder. "Surely you're not saying you considered quitting wrestling because Vince pulled your character?"

"No!" Bayley quickly objected. "Of course I wouldn't quit over that. What I meant was, when Seth proposed to me, we talked about having a baby. It wasn't until a couple of days later that it sunk in that my career would probably be over if that happened, so we decided to wait a few years at least before we went down that road."

"Oh," Sasha breathed, surprised by the news. "How did Seth feel about that? Changing your mind, I mean."

"He said he was fine with it, but I think he's really ready to have a kid. I just don't want to put my career in jeopardy for it. Not yet anyway. Think about it, I'd have months off while I was pregnant, then maternity leave, then I'd have to get back in shape. Even then, I don't know if I could come back on the road after having a kid. I'd want to stay home with him or her."

"I can see what you're saying," Sasha said as her music began to play in the arena. "We'll pick this up later, Bay."

"Sure," Bayley said to her friend's back. She now regretted bringing up the topic of possibly having a baby; it had taken the shine off of her excitement about her impending return. There had been a period of a couple of days after she had told Seth that she didn't want to have a baby yet where things had been tense between them for the first time in their relationship, and it hadn't been nice at all, least off all because it had only been a few days after she'd accepted his marriage proposal. They should have been the happiest people in the world, not feeling at odds with each other over a huge decision that would permanently affect both of their lives.

Thankfully, Seth had come around to her way of thinking and had agreed to wait, acknowledging that it wasn't fair for her to have to give up the wrestling career that she had worked so hard for over so many years. It wasn't as if she had totally changed her mind and said that she would never want a child, she just wanted some more time to enjoy wrestling first. She didn't think that was unreasonable at all. Three or four years at the top, all being well, she had decided, then they could get serious about having a child, maybe even more than one.

"Are you okay, Bayley?" Nia asked with genuine concern, walking over to her. "I thought you'd be bouncing off the walls right now, but you look quite down, if anything."

Contrary to how she appeared on screen, big and scary, Bayley knew that Nia was one of the nicest people backstage. Hearing her kind tone helped Bayley to snap out of her malaise and focus on the fact that in a minute or so, the fans would take the roof off the building to celebrate the return of hugger Bayley. "I'm fine," she smiled. "Thanks, Nia. Just a little overwhelmed to be back as this character is all."

Nia gave her a friendly squeeze on the shoulder. "Enjoy it."

Bayley could hear Sasha out in the ring, giving her promo about successfully finding a tag team partner for the night to take on The Queen's Court. Any second now, she thought, taking a deep breath.

* * *

"But I did manage to find someone," Sasha informed the crowd with a cunning smile. "You see, I made a call to an old friend, who agreed to come back and help not only me, but everyone, rid the WWE of 'Queen' Charlotte and her bunch of lapdogs."

"An old friend?" Cole asked on commentary.

The crowd seemed to be as nonplussed as he was, as they mostly just sat there in silence for a few seconds while they waited for Sasha's partner's music to hit.

"Woah!" Saxton cried out when Bayley's 'Turn it up' theme music hit, as the crowd erupted with delight. "It's Bayley! Bayley is back!"

"Bayley?" Graves asked as she walked out on stage. "That's not the Bayley I remember."

"Commissioner Martinez is gone, Corey," Saxton was happy to announce. "This is the return of the real Bayley, and she brought along her wacky, wavy, arm-flailing Bayley Buddies!"

"Bayley Buddies?" Cole chuckled as the crowd popped once more. "I like that. Look at the fans, they're going crazy for Bayley. It's hug life here tonight on Raw."

Beaming with delight, Bayley hugged as many fans as she could on her way down the ramp, clearly loving every second of it as much as they were. After completing her entrance routine, delighting the crowd once more with the poses that been so familiar before her heel turn, she stood a few feet away from Sasha, the two women looking eye to eye.

"What's going to happen here?" Cole asked. "At one time, these two ladies were close friends. We've been told that Sasha called Bayley and... yes!" he exclaimed as Bayley walked forward and hugged Sasha, confirming that the friendship was also back from the dead. Another delighted cheer filled the building, but then Bayley's music quickly faded out, to immediately be replaced by the fanfare that heralded the arrival of The Queen's Court. The crowd made their displeasure more than obvious, booing loudly.

Charlotte's throne had been brought out and placed at the top of the entrance ramp by a couple of crew members while the cameras had been focused on the ring. Her three ladies-in-waiting walked out and knelt down on one knee in front of it, in preparation for the arrival of the Queen herself.

"I'd better see you kneeling, Saxton," Graves said. "The Queen is about to arrive."

"Can't wait," Saxton mumbled, voice laden with sarcasm.

To an ever louder chorus of boos, Charlotte walked slowly out onto the stage, wearing her robe, crown, and a facial expression that indicated she was disgusted to even be breathing the same air as anyone else in the building.

"Here comes the Queen," Graves announced sycophantically. "Look how fabulous she looks, Cole. Have you ever seen such a magnificent sight?"

There was no answer, which in itself was an answer, as Charlotte walked over to her throne and sat down without acknowledging her three loyal followers, who stood up and faced the ring once she was seated. Nikki had been holding a microphone, which she handed to the Queen with great reverence.

"Sasha Banks," Charlotte began, condescending as could be. "You continue to displease me. You have been a thorn in my side for some time. Despite my insistence that the WWE Women's Championship rightfully belongs to me, you continue to defy me and hold onto it for yourself. This is not acceptable to me, and as the Queen of WWE, I have to take action against anyone who defies me."

"You had the chance to beat me for this twice," Sasha interrupted, holding her belt up in the air. "And true to form, you failed. That's what you do, boo. You fail. Even with those three suck up bitches doing your dirty work for you and interfering in your matches, you still can't get the job done."

The fans took pleasure in cheering the insults and Bayley was shown grinning about them herself.

"This," Charlotte barked, pointing an accusatory finger towards the ring, "Is why you get your ass kicked so often, Sasha. Unlike you, these three ladies know that it is their place to honour the Queen and to obey my every command. That is the way it should be on Monday Night Raw. I should be the champion, with all other women subservient to me. Sooner or later, that is the way it will be. You talk about ridding the WWE of The Queen's Court? That's never going to happen. All who oppose my rule will be destroyed. Bayley, I'm going to give you one opportunity to save yourself from the pain and suffering that allying yourself with Sasha Banks will bring you. Leave the ring right now and join my court, and you will be forgiven for standing beside Sasha."

The crowd booed that suggestion and some of them began to chant, "No."

Bayley seemed to consider it for a moment, then asked Sasha for her microphone. "I appreciate the offer, Charlotte, I really do," she began, making it sound like she was wavering on the decision. But then she yelled, "But I didn't come back to kneel in front of you. I came back to fight you in any way I can."

Charlotte's expression looked like she had been slapped in the face as the crowd erupted in delight. "So be it," she said icily. "It will not trouble me to put an end to you along with your so-called friend. Nia, Alexa, you know what must be done." All three of Charlotte's ladies-in-waiting were now referred to by their first names only, in an attempt to make them sound more appropriate for their roles in the new stable.

Seemingly delighted to have been selected by their leader, Nia and Alexa smiled as they made their way to the ring, while Charlotte and Nikki remained on the stage, observing from afar.

"When we come back, it's Sasha and Bayley against Nia and Alexa," Cole announced.

* * *

Working like a well-oiled machine, Nia and Alexa had managed to isolate Sasha in the ring for a large portion of the match, much to the delight of their Queen, who was shown multiple times, looking satisfied with their work. Eventually, however, Sasha was able to counter Nia and deliver a neckbreaker slam, leaving both women down in the middle of the ring.

Seeing that there was an opportunity for Sasha to make a tag, Bayley climbed onto the bottom rope, stretching her hand into the ring as far as she could. The fans cheered Sasha on, desperate to see Bayley explode after a hot tag. They got their wish a few moments later, and the atmosphere was electric as Bayley took both of her opponents apart with all of the old Bayley signature moves that everyone knew and loved.

On the stage, Charlotte was a lot less pleased with how the match was now going. "Get down there," she growled at Nikki, who was already taking her robe off before the order came.

Bayley, having pulled the top rope down in front of a charging Nia, sending her crashing to the floor, returned her attention to Alexa. The legal woman on The Queen's Court's team got to her feet, groggy from the previous move she had taken, and was about to walk into a Bayley-to-Belly when Nikki arrived at the ring and climbed up on the apron.

Distracted, Bayley rushed over to Nikki and took a swing at her, but Nikki dropped back off the apron in time to avoid the contact. The brief distraction was all that Alexa needed to come from behind Bayley and roll her up in a small package for the cheap victory.

"Oh, come on!" Saxton complained. "The Queen's Court stole one from Bayley and Sasha Banks. Bayley loses her first match back on Raw thanks to a distraction from Nikki. As usual, the numbers game comes into play."

Bayley bounced right back to her feet after the pin, only to be blasted from behind by Nia, who had just rolled back into the ring. Nikki also got into the ring and all three women set about attempting to put an end to Bayley, exactly as their Queen had promised.

Finally able to get back to her feet, Sasha rushed back into the ring and managed to quickly even the numbers by taking Nikki out with a vicious Backstabber.

"This has completely broken down!" Cole shouted. "All four women going at it now, although it's no longer a wrestling match, it's a fight!"

An apprehensive groan from the crowd provided the cue for the cameras to focus on the stage. With a face like thunder, Queen Charlotte has stood up and removed her crown, setting it down on the throne. Her robe quickly followed, then she stormed down to the ring.

"We've seen this before," Graves said in delight. "When the Queen decides to get personally involved, you know things are about to get serious."

He was right. As Charlotte entered the ring, Sasha noticed her coming out of the corner of her eye and whipped around to confront her, only to take a Big Boot square on the jaw. The move connected with a loud impact that made the crowd groan in horror. Worse was to come for Bayley, who was grabbed from behind by Nia, who then gave her a firm push, adding even more momentum to the second Big Boot.

Just like that, both of the Queen's adversaries had been taken out, both lying motionless on the canvas. "Get my belt," Charlotte ordered Alexa, who scuttled over to the corner closest to the timekeeper's position and demanded the Women's Championship belt. When she had it in her possession, she hurried back over to her impatient ruler and handed it over.

Ignoring the boos which rained down, Charlotte slowly lifted the belt in the air as her three ladies-in-waiting knelt in front of her, in awe of what they saw in front of them. For them, Charlotte with the belt was the holy grail.

"Look at the ladies-in-waiting," Graves said. "And look at the Queen holding up the Women's Championship. You can't tell me that it doesn't look better in her hands than it does with Sasha Banks. One day, Charlotte will be the champion. I think that day is coming real soon, and I don't think there's a damn thing that either Sasha or Bayley can do about it."

"Sadly, you might be right," Saxton said quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

"See you tomorrow night," Sasha said to Emma as the Australian closed the locker room door behind her, leaving Sasha and Bayley as the last two people remaining in the room. Turning to her friend, who was sitting on a steel chair, already changed and ready to leave, Sasha said, "Now we can get back to what we were talking about just before the match. I'm really surprised to hear you and Seth had an argument like that. You're always so happy around each other."

"Any relationship has tough times, Sash," Bayley said, nonetheless sounding depressed about the fact. "It really wasn't nice though, especially when Seth had just proposed to me the day before. It was my fault. I feel really bad about the whole thing."

Sasha carried a steel chair over to Bayley and sat down beside her, a concerned expression on her face. "What do you mean, it was your fault?"

"I was the one who said about us having a baby," Bayley replied sadly. "I just got really carried away when Seth proposed to me. I'd never felt as happy as that before in my life, and I just blurted it out without really thinking. Honestly, it was a really stupid thing to do because we'd never even talked about it before."

"So, Seth said he wanted a baby and then you changed your mind the next day?" Sasha grimaced, seeing the awkward situation Bayley had created for herself. "I can see why he took that badly."

"I can too," Bayley assured her. "I told you I feel really bad about the whole thing. If I'd just accepted his proposal and been happy with that, it never would have happened. But I can't change that now, can I? And I really don't want to have a baby yet. It would pretty much mean the end of my career, and I'm not ready for that by any means. I've not even been on the main roster for very long, and I've only had one short title run. After how hard I've worked to get here, I can't just give up on it. We're both quite young, so we have plenty of time to raise a family."

"All of that makes sense," Sasha said, nodding sympathetically. "I'd like to hope Seth can see all of those things."

"Me too," Bayley said timidly, looking down at the floor.

Sasha closed her eyes for a second as the realisation dawned on her that Bayley and Seth hadn't had a real talk about the problem. They had just tried to move past it without addressing it. That wasn't a good thing to do, as the awkwardness and resentment would always be lurking somewhere in the background, just waiting for an opportunity to come out at the worst possible time. That kind of thing could destroy a relationship. "Bay, you need to sit down and talk to him about this. And I mean properly talk about it. You can't just move on from this and act like everything is okay, because sooner or later it's going to flare up again if you don't address it. I know you guys love each other very much. I know how happy you make each other. I'm not going to see you both lose that because you don't talk to each other about something like this."

"I can't lose him," Bayley said, feeling her eyes fill with tears as she played with her engagement ring. "He's the love of my life, Sash."

"I know he is," Sasha said gently, taking her hand and squeezing it. Her heart really hurt for her friend at that moment. "That's why you have to talk to him. You have to, Bay. The longer you leave it, the harder it will be to do."

"But things have been okay between us," Bayley countered, still looking down at the floor. "We've been video calling each other and stuff, and it's been really nice. I missed him so much when I was stuck at home without him. All I wanted was to be back on the road with him."

"Bay," Sasha cut in, "I'm sure all of those things are true, but listen to me. You can't just leave this unresolved. It will be bad for your relationship in the long run."

"We might have a fight if we talk about it," Bayley mumbled, shying away from the idea.

"It's possible," Sasha admitted, "But I'd like to think you guys can talk about important things like this without ending up at each other's throats. Neither of you is that kind of person. Seriously, just tell him how you feel. Apologise for blurting out something you didn't mean. Emotions were obviously running high in the moment, and you got carried away."

With a reluctant sigh, Bayley said, "I suppose you're right. Thanks for talking to me, Sash. I'm afraid of making a mess of the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Sasha put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her. "That's not going to happen. The guy proposed to you, and besides, it's obvious to anyone how much you love each other. Now let me have a proper look at that engagement ring."

Showing off her beautiful silver ring quickly brightened Bayley's spirits. She knew that the advice she had been given was good. A strong relationship had to involve discussion of whatever problems arose. With that in mind, she made the decision to speak to Seth when they got to their hotel room later in the night.

* * *

"So when is the big day?" Roman asked Seth. The two men were in their locker room, changing back into their regular clothes after their showers. They had competed in the main event of the night, so would be among the last to leave the arena.

"We've not really talked about that yet," Seth said, pulling on a pair of jeans.

"You proposed to her and you didn't talk about when you might get married? You must know what kind of wedding you want at least?"

"We talked a little about it. We don't want a big service with tons of people there. That's not the kind of thing either of us like. Maybe one of those beach weddings, in Hawaii or the Bahamas or something. You know, a few family members, few friends."

Roman narrowed his eyes at his friend after putting his T-Shirt on. "This is all a bit vague, man. Is everything okay with you guys? It was ages ago that you proposed to her, yet you haven't really talked about any details. Doesn't seem right to me."

Seth pulled his own T-shirt on and hesitated for a moment before answering. Choosing the right words wasn't particularly easy. "Things are okay, I guess," he said, with a half-shrug. "We really missed each other while Bay wasn't on the road. I would video call her all the time and we'd enjoy chatting to each other a lot."

"But?" Roman asked, sensing the word coming.

"But," Seth hesitated again.

Now fully changed, Roman sat down on the wooden bench that ran along the back wall of the locker room and gestured for Seth to join him. "You can talk to me, Seth. What's going on? The last thing I want is things going badly for you and Bayley. I'm happy to help if I can."

"She did something I really wasn't happy about right after I proposed to her," Seth said awkwardly, after sitting down next to his friend, or big brother as it often seemed in situations like this.

"You mean she said yes?" Roman quipped, unable to help himself. Seth just looked at him without laughing, so Roman said, "Sorry. Not the time for lame jokes. Tell me what happened."

Shaking his head at the memory, Seth said, "I asked her to marry me, just how I'd imagined it for weeks, months even, beforehand. I'd always wanted to do it the first time we got back home when the place was totally finished. I asked her, she said yes, and we were both the happiest people in the world. Then she surprised me by saying she'd like us to have a baby. I asked her if she meant she wanted to try right away, and she said she did. I was even happier..."

"Wait a sec," Roman said, holding a hand up to stop him. "You were happy she wanted to have a baby? Bro, you've always said you wouldn't want kids of your own. You even said to me once that you hoped it didn't cause problems between you and Bayley if she got broody. Now you're saying you wanted a baby?"

Seth shrugged. "I guess being with Bay changed the way I look at things. The point is, she brought up having a baby, and we decided we were going to try. We were both so happy, or at least that's what I thought. Then the next day she suddenly changed her mind, talking about how having a baby would mean the end of her career and she wasn't ready to give that up yet."

"Oh man, that's rough," Roman said sympathetically. "I can totally see why that pissed you off. There's nothing quite like having your heart set on something like that, only to have the other person change their minds. She really shouldn't have done that to you. But, looking at it from her point of view, maybe she just, you know, got carried away in the moment? Then, when she'd had more time to think on it, she realised exactly what a massive impact having a baby would have on her her life, on both of your lives actually."

"So what are you saying?" Seth asked, a confused look on his face.

"I'm saying, you said this happened right after you proposed to her and she said yes. It was probably the happiest moment of her life, man. I'm sure it was the happiest moment of yours, too. It sounds to me like she got caught up in the moment and blurted out something that she came to regret when she said she wanted to try for a baby. Does she want to have a baby with you? Yeah, I'm sure she does, but she doesn't want to do it now. You've got to see it from her point of view, in that pregnancy likely means she's done with wrestling. That is a huge, huge sacrifice, and it's one she doesn't need to make. You guys can have a baby a few years from now, when she's had a decent amount of time at the top of WWE. You can't expect her to give that up after putting in so many years of blood, sweat and tears to make it to where she is now. That's not fair on her."

Seth considered all of that for a moment. "I can see the sense in what you're saying. I thought of most of that myself to be honest, but I can't hide the fact that it really pissed me off how she did what she did. It spoiled the days after I proposed, when they should have been some of the best days of our lives."

"And I'm sure she feels awful about that," Roman said, an edge coming into his voice. Although Seth was his friend, he was prepared to take Bayley's side on things if necessary. "Listen, Seth. Bayley loves you to death. She would never do anything to hurt you, we both know that. She fucked up. But it's your job as her partner to forgive her when she fucks up, and to let her know that you forgive her and that it's all going to be okay. Honestly, by not properly talking to her about it before now, you've fucked up as well. You need to be better than that, bro."

"I don't see how you get to this being my fault," Seth said grumpily.

"Like I just told you," Roman said calmly, "She's your fiancee. Yes, she fucked up, and you had the right to spend a day or two being pissed off about it, but you should have seen it from her point of view and forgiven her long before now. It's not like she said she didn't want to ever have a baby with you, is it?"

"No," Seth admitted. "I guess I have been kind of a dick about it, now that you put it like that. She deserves better than that from me, even if she did screw up pretty bad by blurting that out without thinking it through. I should talk to her about it tonight, shouldn't I?"

Roman clapped his little brother on the shoulder. "You answered your own question there. I can get a ride to the hotel with someone else tonight, if you like?" Before Bayley's previous character had been withdrawn from TV, the routine had been that Roman would join them and they would always travel as a trio. It was a dynamic that all three of them enjoyed a lot, but with a serious discussion at hand, Roman had decided that tonight might be a time to leave them to travel together and hopefully work out their problems.

"No, it's okay. You can ride with us," Seth told him. "I'll wait until we're in our room to talk to her."

"Okay," Roman said seriously, then he grinned. "Otherwise, next time we get in the car, I'll bang your heads together."

Seth chuckled. "I don't think that's going to be necessary. Seriously, bro, thanks for this talk. I really appreciate it."

"You're always welcome, you know that," Roman said kindly.

Seth quickly changed the subject, and within moments both men were back in their usual jovial moods. As they laughed and cracked jokes, Seth couldn't get the thought out of the back of his mind that Roman had been right; he hadn't done his best to make Bayley happy recently, and he felt guilty about the fact. He would have to make that right, and he had just the idea in mind to help him do so.


	5. Chapter 5

After a frustrating drive, hampered by heavier traffic than they had expected to encounter, Seth and Bayley finally walked into their hotel room. Both of them were tired and ready to grab some sleep, yet they also each had something that they wanted to say to the other beforehand.

"What a long night," Bayley said tiredly, wheeling her case around to the left side of the bed. No matter where they slept, she always had to be on the left side.

"I know," Seth yawned, sitting down on his side of the bed. "It's great to have you back with me though. Being on the road all those weeks while you were back home was the worst thing."

"It was just as bad being at home alone," Bayley assured him sadly. "I missed you so much. Sometimes I would want to cry when I got into that empty bed at night."

"Oh, baby," Seth said sympathetically as he shifted across the bed to sit on her side. She sat down beside him and they embraced each other tightly. It felt like an extraordinary tender moment to both of them, emphasised with the thoughts that were running through their heads about how they had let each other down over the issue of whether or not to try for a baby.

"I love you, Seth," Bayley said quietly, resting her head on his shoulder. "I never want you to doubt that, not even for a second, okay?"

"I don't doubt it, angel," Seth assured her, deciding that it was time to broach the subject that he'd had on his mind all night. "And I don't want you to ever doubt I love you, either. I asked you to marry me because I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I know things kind of ended up going sideways after I proposed to you, and I want to apologise about that."

"You mean the baby thing?" Bayley asked, still hugging him. "I'm the one who should be apologising to you. I was going to do that tonight. I know that probably sounds like BS now that you beat me to the punch in bringing it up, but I really was going to talk to you about it. It's been on my mind for ages, but I've always been too nervous that we might have a fight to bring it up. Seth, I never should have blurted out about us trying for a baby without thinking it through first. It was a really stupid, insensitive thing to do, and I can't even tell you how much I regret it. I know I really hurt you by saying that and then changing my mind the next day, but I need you to understand the reasons I can't have a baby yet."

Seth pulled back from her slightly and touched a finger to her lips to silence her. "I get it, baby," he told her gently, hoping she could see only love in his eyes. "I understand why you don't want to have a baby yet. I get that it would mean the end of your career, and I totally understand why you don't want that to happen, and nor should you. It wouldn't be fair of me at all to ask you throw away everything you've worked so hard for. I should have been more willing to look at it from your point of view at the time, and I should have sat you down to talk about it instead of trying to pretend it never happened, which only left it stewing away in both of our minds these past how many weeks. We both screwed up on this one, Bay. I'm sorry for how I handled it. How about we both forgive each other and move on?"

Eyes filling with tears, Bayley looked down, avoiding eye contact. She couldn't believe that after so much heartache and so many fears about what could have become of their relationship, it had been resolved so simply once they had actually talked to each other about it. "I thought I was going to lose you, Seth. I thought I'd screwed up the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Seth gently lifted her chin, making her look him in the eye. "You're not going to lose me, baby, not ever. We're going to get married, and we're going to be together, always. What we need to learn from this is that we have to talk about our problems. Every couple has problems from time to time, no matter how much they love each other. It's how you deal with them that keeps the relationship strong."

"You're totally right, we have to make sure we don't let something linger like this again. I love you so much," Bayley said, feeling other emotions now taking over her. "I love you, and I missed you. I want to show you how much." Planting a kiss on his mouth, she pushed him backwards onto the bed, encountering no resistance.

"I missed this as well," Seth said in between kisses as she lay on top of him, feeling himself awakening beneath her. "How we managed so long apart from each..."

"Ssshh," Bayley said softly, covering his mouth with her hand as she often liked to. "Enough talking from you for one night." Keeping her hand in place, she leaned down and started kissing the side of his neck and nipping at it with her teeth, just enough for him to feel pain, but not enough to make it unbearable. In between her kisses and bites, she had more she wanted to say. "I can't wait to marry you, Seth. I'm going to be the happiest, proudest, luckiest woman in the world. And I really do want us to have a family together. I want to have your babies. All I'm asking for is a few years at the top in WWE first. After that, we can raise a family in our wonderful home, and we'll have the happiest, move loved kids ever."

"Mmmm," Seth moaned happily, enjoying her words as much as the sensations her kisses and biting we giving him. He was happy to let her take charge this time, knowing that next time they were home, the roles would be reversed. One thing was for sure: their first night back on the road together was going to be a very passionate one. They had plenty of catching up to do.

* * *

When Roman walked into the hotel's restaurant the next morning for breakfast, he quickly saw that he wasn't going to have to wait for an opportunity to ask Seth how the previous night's talk with Bayley had gone. The answer was more than obvious, written as it was all over both of their faces. They were sitting opposite each other at a table for four, chatting away and grinning at each other, looking as happy as could be. "Good for them," he thought with a smile of his own. After getting himself a cup of coffee and something to eat, he walked over to join them.

"Here he is," Seth greeted him happily. "Grab a seat, bro."

"Thanks," Roman said, then smiled politely at Bayley. "Morning Bayley. How are you?"

"Great, thanks," Bayley beamed. "You?"

"Really good," Roman said as he sat down next to Seth. There was no doubt about Bayley's smile being infectious at times like this.

"I'm going to get more toast and another coffee," Bayley told Seth. "Do you want me to get you anything?"

"I'll go for another coffee, too, thank you," Seth said. After his fiancee left the table, he turned to Roman. "We had our talk last night, Rome."

"I can see that," Roman said through a mouthful of bacon and egg. "It looks like you managed to work it all out?"

"You wouldn't believe how simple it was, once we actually opened up to each other," Seth said, shaking his head at his own previous stupidity. "I'm such a dumbass sometimes. All I had to do was talk to her. That's a lesson I've learned from this, for sure."

"No argument from me on the dumbass thing," Roman smiled over the top of his coffee cup.

"Yeah, well, since Bayley's apparently not leaving my ass, I have a wedding to start thinking about. And that means I need a best man."

Roman knew exactly what Seth was getting at, but he decided to toy with him. "Hmmm," he said thoughtfully. "How about Cesaro? He looks good in a suit."

"I don't want Cesaro," Seth chuckled.

"Hunter might do it," Roman quickly suggested.

Seth laughed even harder. "I don't want Hunter either." Then he got serious. "I want you to be my best man, Roman, if you'll do it?"

Roman smiled at the man he considered to be his little brother. "Of course I'll do it. If anyone's going to give away my little bro, it's going to be me. Seriously, I'm really pleased you guys are going to be okay - not that I doubted it - and I can't wait for your wedding. You're going to be very happy together."

"Thanks, man," Seth said, offering his hand so they could shake on the best man agreement.

Roman accepted the handshake and said, "What kind of wedding do you think you'll have?"

"I'd love one of those beach weddings," Seth said with a dreamy look in his eyes. "I can picture Bay and I on the beach with a few friends and family. I wouldn't want a church wedding, especially not with the place full of people. That's not my dream at all, honestly. Luckily, I don't think it will be Bayley's either."

"I can see you guys getting married on a beach somewhere, the Caribbean maybe," Roman considered. "Obviously you need to talk to your lady about it."

"Obviously," Seth said, watching the woman in question walking back across the room towards them with a tray in her hands. As he often did, he found himself thinking how lucky he was to have her.

"What are you two looking so conspiratorial about?" Bayley asked cheerfully as she approached.

"I have nothing to say," Roman told her.

Bayley put Seth's coffee in front of him and he thanked her for fetching it. Then she said, "Let me guess, you were talking about our wedding? Maybe asking Roman to be the best man?"

"That's exactly what we were doing," Seth grinned sheepishly. He hadn't expected to get into the wedding conversation with Bayley right then and there, but that seemed to be how it was going to go. "Rome agreed to be my best man, then I explained that we haven't talked about what kind of wedding service we'd like to have as yet."

Bayley started spreading butter on her toast as she said, "Would you be offended if I said I didn't want a church wedding? The idea of it has always kind of freaked me out. I know it's weird when we go out into arenas and perform in front of thousands of people every night, but the thought of a large number of friends and family watching me say my vows makes me feel uncomfortable."

Roman chuckled after finishing off a mouthful of food. "This is why I love you guys."

"What do you mean?" Bayley asked.

"I was just saying that I ideally wouldn't want a church wedding," Seth revealed. "Personally, I think a beach wedding would be great. I can see us on a picturesque sunny beach; a few friends; a few family members."

"Oh, Seth, could we?" Bayley breathed, eyes wide. "That sounds so beautiful to me. I've heard there are places where you can book your own villa and private beach for beach weddings, so there's no one else around apart from you and your guests. If we found the right place, we could have our wedding there and our honeymoon too, after everyone else went home. I would truly, truly love that."

"Then I guess we'd better start looking into venues for beach weddings," Seth said, grinning like an idiot. He found himself thinking what a huge contrast in emotions there was between how he felt now and how he had felt when they had walked into the hotel the previous night.

Bayley made an excited squealing sound and leaned over the table to kiss her man.

"Okay, that's my cue to leave," Roman said, having finished his breakfast. He made a point of looking away from them kissing each other. "Congrats guys. Anything I can do, let me know."

Neither Seth or Bayley heard him, or paid any attention to him as he left the table. They were too lost on each other and their plans for their future.


	6. Chapter 6

"Seth, look, they've changed the sign," Bayley said, pointing out of the windshield of their car as Seth backed it into a parking space outside of their favourite coffee shop, Bean and Gone. Since the last time they had visited, the sign proclaiming the shop as being for sale had been replaced with one with the word 'sold' in huge red letters.

Seth and Bayley had first visited Bean and Gone when they had been checking out the city of Waukee, Iowa as a potential place to buy a house. It was over their coffees that day that they had decided they liked the city enough to call it home. For that reason, Bean and Gone had always held a special place in both of their hearts, and they would make sure to visit every time they were at home together.

"I hope the new owners won't change the place too much," Bayley said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"I don't think they will," Seth said confidently.

They walked into the coffee shop and joined the line at the counter. Bayley saw that the old couple who currently ran the place were both still there, for the moment at least. As always, the small shop was busy, with only two tables currently empty.

When their turn came to be served, Bayley ordered for herself and for Seth, knowing what he liked. "I saw the sign outside," she said to the female owner, who responded with a warm smile as she worked on fixing the drinks.

"That's right," she said. "We put a lot of years and a lot of love into Bean and Gone, but Ernie and I are not getting any younger. We have to work a lot of hours to keep it going, and it was starting to be a struggle for us. We came to the realisation that it was time to sell up and retire." Setting the two cups of coffee on the counter, she added, "These are on the house."

"You don't have to do that," Bayley said quickly.

"No, please, take them," the kind old lady said. "You guys have been regular customers for some time now. It's the least we can do to thank you."

"Thanks very much," Seth said, reaching over Bayley's shoulder and picking up both cups. "That's really very nice of you."

"You're welcome," the shop's owner said.

Seth and Bayley walked over to the one table which was now available and sat down opposite each other. "That was so nice of her," Bayley said, looking back towards the counter. "I'm really going to miss this place the way it is if the new owners do change it. I'll be so upset."

"They would have to be mad to change anything here," Seth said, gesturing expansively around the shop. "Look at how busy it is. They must turn over a fortune here. It's not even in a busy location, yet there are always people in. That's what having a good reputation does, in real terms. The new owners will have to take that into account."

As they took the first sips from their drinks, a comfortable silence settled on their table for a minute or so, with Bayley's mind stuck on the idea that someone might ruin the coffee shop that was so dear to her. The memories of that first day in Waukee with Seth were not something that she ever wanted to forget, and Bean and Gone was an integral part of that.

"I'm really glad to see you so happy, angel," Seth said eventually. "These first few weeks back on the road seem to have done you the world of good."

"They have," Bayley smiled. "As I've said before, I really hated being stuck at home without you all that time while I waited for the call to come back. I hope to never have to go through something like that again. Plus, having my old character back has been so awesome. It really makes my heart happy, Seth."

Seth's own heart melted at that, and he had to lean over the table to kiss his fiancee. "Sometimes you say the sweetest things, Bay."

Feeling her cheeks warming up, Bayley said, "Well, it's true. I'm always thinking about how lucky I am. I doubt there's anyone in the world who's happier than I am, and that's mostly because of you."

Seth kissed her again. She was so cute and adorable that it was killing him. All he could think about at that moment was that he could not wait to marry her and officially commit himself to her for the rest of their lives.

"I don't think I've ever had so much fun in the ring, either," Bayley went on. "This thing with The Queen's Court is really turning out to be great. Char was a great heel before, but now she's on an even higher level. I'm really pleased for her, she totally deserves it for how hard she works."

"I'm pleased for all of you," Seth said. "You know what a big supporter I am of women's wrestling. There were a couple of months where it seemed to be loosing a lot of momentum. You were at home, Sasha wasn't wrestling often because she was carrying an injury, and the writing seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. But now, you're back and they've upped their game again big time. It's great to see people like Nia on Charlotte's team and Emma on your team getting pushed, too."

"I totally agree," Bayley said. "And we've still got the Survivor Series match to come soon. We've still got to wait and see who they choose to turn heel to join The Queen's Court. I can't believe they're keeping it a secret until the last minute, even from us."

"Come on then," Seth smiled, "Let's have your prediction for who it's going to be. Maybe it's you?" he suggested, changing his expression into what he hoped looked like an evil grin.

Bayley giggled. "There's no way. I've only just come back as a face. No, I think it's got to be either Becky or Sasha. I really hope it's not Sasha. I love teaming up with her so much."

"She's probably the most likely," Seth admitted. "That would make The Queen's Court quite the formidable team."

"I guess that's why we get Ronda Rousey on our team," Bayley said enthusiastically. "I'm looking forward to seeing her again, especially since she won't be coming to kick my ass this time. Damn, she worked stiff in both the matches I had with her."

Seth nodded. "I remember. They were both good matches, though. I think it's brilliant business that they've managed to sign her up on a more regular basis. You know it's going to bring new viewers, and that's always a good thing."

Bayley enjoyed a mouthful of her hot coffee, savouring the taste of it with a sigh of pleasure. "There's nothing quite look good coffee," she said, relaxing back on her chair.

The conversation moved on to the subject of what their family and friends had been doing recently, until Bayley announced that she needed to visit the bathroom. Seth managed not to let on how pleased he was as she left the table. She had just presented him with a solution to a problem that he had been thinking about all morning - how to get a minute alone at the table.

When Bayley disappeared through the door that lead to the bathrooms, Seth reached into one of the pockets in his jeans and pulled out a small metal key. Smiling to himself, he lifted Bayley's coffee cup up, put the key underneath it, then set it back down again, making sure that it was not obvious that he had moved it. The surprise was all set.

"We need to stop off for some groceries on the way home," Bayley said when she returned to the table a few minutes later.

"No problem," Seth said, leaning back in his chair like he did not have a care in the world.

Bayley reached for her cup. When she lifted it up, she immediately noticed the key that Seth had stashed underneath it. "What's this?" she asked, picking it up and looking at it in confusion. "This wasn't here before."

"No, it wasn't," Seth confirmed, trying his best to keep his smile in check.

"What is it?" Bayley asked again. "You must have put it there."

Seth nodded. "I did put it there. What that is, is one of the keys to Bean and Gone."

"One of the... What do you mean?" Bayley asked, looking at him blankly.

"Remember I said I didn't think the new owners probably wouldn't change much around here?" he asked, grinning now. "I think I can be certain of it."

The penny dropped for Bayley and she squealed in surprise and delight. "You've bought Bean and Gone?" she asked incredulously.

" _We've_ bought it, yeah," Seth said happily. "I had the idea the first time we saw it was up for sale, so I made some calls. It was hard to keep it a secret from you for so long, but I'm glad I managed it."

"Oh my God," Bayley said, covering her face with her hands as tears filled her eyes. "I can't believe we own Bean and Gone."

"Believe it, because it's true," another voice said. It belonged to Ernie, the old man who had run the shop for as long as Seth and Bayley had been customers. He had approached the table, having seen that Seth had sprung his surprise. "Barbara and I have agreed to stay on until the end of the month, then it's all yours," he said pleasantly to Bayley.

"I don't know what to say," Bayley managed to get out as she did her best to wipe tears away from her eyes.

"Just promise me you'll take good care of it," Ernie said, looking at Seth this time.

"Of course," Seth said. "And you and Barbara are welcome any time, and your drinks will be on us. You both made this purchase happen as hassle-free as possible, and I really appreciate it."

"It was our pleasure," Ernie said, smiling at both of them in turn. "When we made the decision to sell, we knew that we wanted to sell to people who wouldn't want to change the place. It might seem strange, but we didn't want to see what we'd built get tossed out like yesterday's garbage, you know?"

"We know exactly what you mean," Bayley assured him. "We've always loved Bean and Gone, and I was just saying when we came in here that I hoped the new owners didn't change anything and ruin it. Now I guess we know they won't," she added, another tear making its way down her cheek.

"I'll leave you to it," Ernie said with another kind smile before he walked away.

"Seth, I can't believe this," Bayley said softly when he was out of earshot.

"I figured we needed another project, now that the house is done," Seth said. "I know we don't want to make major changes, but we can still have the decoration tidied up and maybe replace some of the machines and things if they need it. Plus we need to take on some staff, since we're obviously not going to actually be here to run the place ourselves."

"But, Seth, we don't know anything about running a coffee shop," Bayley said, suddenly worried. "How do we know it's going to work out for us?"

"Simple," Seth said reassuringly. "We know the business is a success. We've seen that for ourselves for a long time now. We're specifically not going to make changes, for that exact reason. All we're essentially going to do is re-staff the place. Ernie has given me the names of a couple of people he thinks we could interview in terms of appointing a manager, then that manager can hire another couple of people to work under them as servers, hire a cleaner, things like that. It's not particularly hard to run a small business like this after someone has already done the hard work of establishing it and forming a reputation for it, as long as you have common sense and hire the right people. That's what we're going to do."

Bayley got up and walked around to sit beside him. After she sat down, she hugged him tightly and rested her head on his shoulder. "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you, Seth, but I'm the luckiest person in the world. I really am. I can't wait to work on turning this into our own coffee shop, even if it's just small changes. Is it sad that I want to work here, too? On the rare occasion that we'll have the time, I mean."

"It's not weird at all, angel," Seth said, putting an arm around her shoulders and giving her a squeeze. "If that's what you want, we'll make it happen. Serving coffee with hugs, what better sales pitch could there be than that?" he chuckled.

Bayley laughed happily. "We could put a picture of me in my ring attire in the window. 'Free hug with every order.' That would definitely be a new concept."

"We would have people lined up around the block," Seth laughed. "So, I'm guessing I didn't make a mistake with this then? It did worry me a bit, buying it without discussing it with you first."

"Of course you did the right thing," Bayley enthused. "This was the best surprise ever."


	7. Chapter 7

Seth had been looking forward to this moment for some time. The bureaucratic process of purchasing Bean and Gone was completed at last. He and Bayley were now the owners of the coffee shop, the previous owners having worked their last shift the previous day. To ensure the transition went as smoothly as possible - the most sensible idea, given that the business was popular and profitable in it's current state - Seth had kept on all of the existing wait staff and hired a manager to run the place day to day, since he and Bayley would obviously be on the road with WWE a lot of the time. As he had dealt with everything regarding the purchase and the transition himself, Bayley was yet to meet the manager he had hired. That was about to change because a re-launch of Bean and Gone had been arranged for their first day in charge.

"There are a few people lining up already," Bayley said as they got out of their car. The closest spot they had been able to find to park had been a few hundred yards up the street. Luckily, most of the coffee shop's custom came from passing footfall as people walked to and from the nearby main shopping streets of Waukee, Iowa as parking was often difficult and Bean and Gone didn't have a parking lot of its own.

"Yeah," Seth agreed. "I expected that, though. There are always some who want to get there early to be the first in line."

The line that was starting to form in the street wasn't just for the relaunch of a coffee shop, of course. Seth had managed to talk Hunter Helmsley into the idea of WWE promoting it as a meet and greet of sorts, where fans could come and by a coffee from Seth Rollins and Bayley's new venture, in return for the chance to meet them and have a picture taken. As with any chance to meet WWE superstars, a large turnout was guaranteed. As far as Bayley was concerned, a day meeting fans was a lot of fun no matter the reason, so the chance for it to also provide a huge boost to the profile of their new business was an amazing bonus. "It was good of Hunter to do this for us," she said happily.

As they neared Bean and Gone, Seth saw that the huge poster that had been produced for the event had been put up in the window. It was a picture of him and Bayley, with the message: _Meet WWE superstars Seth Rollins and Bayley here this Saturday at 1PM!_ The shop would not be opening until the afternoon so that the two new owners had some time to speak to their staff and to get used to the fundamentals of the day to day operation of the business. Luckily, Seth had been able to hire a manager who had recently left a job at a similar establishment, so they would have plenty of help in that regard.

Seeing them approaching, the small number of fans who were starting to form a line began to crowd around the entrance, cheering and calling out their names as they did so. "Hey, guys!" Bayley shouted back, giving them a friendly wave.

A chorus of requests for pictures or autographs came next. Seth decided to speak up and tell the fans what the deal was, rather than being rude and walking into the shop without acknowledging them. "Okay, listen up everyone!" he called out. The small crowd immediately quietened down. "We've got some work to do inside this morning before we can open. You guys are here really early, so you've got quite a wait in front of you, but let me tell you what we're going to do once we do open," he went on, talking loudly enough for everyone to hear. "We're going to have you come in, buy a drink, then we'll have someone ready to take a picture of you with Bayley and I."

"Do we have to buy a drink?" someone said as a joke, causing the rest of the crowd to laugh.

"Yes, you do!" Seth said in good humour. "No purchase, no photo. And I'll have Bayley throw your ass out of the shop, too." The crowd laughed again. "Okay, we'll see you guys later," Seth finished, turning and gesturing for Bayley to go into the shop ahead of him. One of the waitresses had been waiting by the door to open it for them when they were ready to enter.

"Thanks," Bayley said to the young woman as she walked into what was now her establishment. It still seemed crazy to her to think of it that way. She had never imagined that she would own a quaint little coffee shop like the ones she had visited all over the country. She was totally in love with it already.

"Morning everyone," Seth said to the staff once the door was safely locked behind him.

Greetings were returned from the assembled group of staff members, all of whom were wearing black T-shirts with the Bean and Gone branding on the front. A dark skinned woman with long brown hair stepped forward. She looked to be around thirty. Seth made the introductions. "Bay, this is Elena D'Agostino. She's the manager I hired. Elena, meet Bayley."

"Hi. Nice to meet you," Elena said respectfully, offering her hand to the second of her two bosses.

Bayley smiled as they shook hands. She could tell by the woman's appearance as much as her name that she was Italian. There was even a hint of an accent there. "It's good to meet you, Elena. Seth tells me you have experience running a coffee shop?"

"Please, call me Daga. My parents and my school teachers are the only one's who've ever insisted on using my name," the new manager said with a grin. "You're right, yes, I worked as a manager in a similar place to this for two years. I've only recently moved to Des Moines, so I'm really happy, and thankful, to have this opportunity at Bean and Gone."

"And what do you make of what we have here?" Bayley asked. Although she had loved Bean and Gone since the first time she had visited, she wondered if a professional might have a differing opinion.

"Seth already told me you plan not to make any major changes," Elena revealed. "Honestly, I think that's the right decision. I've had a look over the accounts and spoken to the staff, and I can see that we're very popular and we're running at a healthy profit. Changing things would be a lot more likely to affect that negatively, not positively. Some of the decoration is a little bit tired and there is a machine or two that had seen better days, but other than that, I'd leave things how they are."

"That was what we were thinking, about the decoration, wasn't it?" Bayley said, looking at Seth.

Seth nodded. "Yeah. Elena, I want you to show me the machines you think might need replacing. I'd rather do that kind of thing as soon as possible and get ahead of the game."

"Sounds good," the new manager said, pleased that her advice was going to be listened to. Not all people who owned business were as keen to spend money to maintain them.

"Anything else you think we need to know?" Bayley asked.

"I had a look around when I got here about an hour ago, and I think, since we've got a few hours before we open, it might be an idea for us to give everywhere a serious clean. The standards aren't bad by any means, but I'd like a completely fresh start. Obviously when I say us, I mean me and the girls, not you guys."

"No, we'll chip in and help you," Bayley decided quickly. As sad as it might have seemed to some people, she had always actually enjoyed cleaning.

"Speak for yourself," Seth said defensively, obviously joking. It got a laugh from Elena and the wait staff who were waiting nearby for instructions. He thought Bayley's idea to help them clean was actually a good idea. It showed their staff that they didn't think they were above rolling their sleeves up and working themselves. He knew he would have respected that if he was an employee.

"The only other thing is, how are we going to handle the meet and greet event today?" Elena asked. "Needless to say, I've not done anything like it before."

Seth decided to handle that one. It was a good question. If it had been an event that was being run by WWE, they would have sent a couple of people to manage the crowd. But this wasn't a WWE event; all they had done was assist with some marketing of it. "We'll clear some of the tables out of the way to give people more room to walk in and out, and to make somewhere for us to stand to get photos with people. We'll need someone to stand at the door, keeping control of the number of people that are inside at a time. We don't want overcrowding, for obvious reasons. Who do you think would be best at doing that?"

"I'll do it," Elena said firmly. She wasn't afraid to take charge of people, and in any case she hadn't yet had a chance to work with any of her waitresses, so she couldn't have comfortably recommended any of them for the job.

Seth had no trouble believing that she wouldn't take any shit, should anyone try and get out of line. There was definitely an element of that within her character; actually it had been one of the reasons he had chosen to hire her. "Okay, and we'll need one of the girls to take photos for people using their phones. We can sort that out when we're ready to get started. For now, let's make a start on the cleaning. When that's done, I'd like you to give Bay and I a quick crash course on, uh, how to make a good cup of coffee, I guess. I'm sure we'll end up working shifts here ourselves from time to time, so we'd like to know what we're doing."

"Not a problem," Elena said easily.

"Onto the cleaning, then," Bayley said, keen to see how their new manager would delegate, even to them. "Daga, you're the manager, over to you."

"Right," Elena said, seeing the test for what it was. She turned to face the wait staff. "Listen up everyone. I know you've all met Seth when he came in to speak to you all about the transition." She gestured to Bayley. "This is our other new owner, Seth's partner, Bayley. As I'm sure you all just heard, we've agreed that before we open the shop today, we're going to clean the place thoroughly, from top to bottom. I'm not saying you've been doing a particularly bad job of it up until now, but this is day one under new ownership and I think there is room for improvement. We're going to start the new era with everything perfect. Seth and Bayley have offered to help us with the job, so let's get to it. When we're done, I'll speak to you about what's going to happen with the meet and greet session this afternoon. Everything clear?"

Positive responses came back from the entire group. Elena then set about assigning them to clean specific areas, mainly focusing on the parts of the shop that customers would experience. Seth and Bayley's assignment came last of all, after the wait staff had been dismissed to make a start. "I'd like you guys to do the storage room and office, please. It's the cleanest area from what I've seen, so it won't require all that much work," she added confidentially.

Bayley appreciated what Elena had done there. She was happy to demonstrate to the staff that the owners were willing to pitch in with the work, but at the same time she didn't want them to actually work too hard. "Where are the cleaning supplies? I'm going to need some gloves," she said.

"She's got OCD about getting her hands dirty," Seth chipped in, grinning in amusement at the chance to needle his fiancee a little.

Bayley scowled at him. It was a long-standing joke between them, but it still annoyed her. "It's not OCD," she insisted.

Chuckling at them both, Elena pointed through the door that lead from the main part of the shop to the staff only areas. "There's a janitors closet through there. I'm sure you'll be able to find everything you need. Some of the girls will be there already."

A few minutes later, Seth and Bayley were in the privacy of the store room, ready to start their cleaning. "I can't believe you said I have OCD to Elena," Bayley said, now able to smile about it.

Seth shrugged. "I was only being honest about it. You're in denial. And you're supposed to call her Daga."

"I am not in denial," Bayley insisted strongly.

"Mmm hmm," Seth said skeptically, making it obvious that he was watching her putting on the pair of rubber gloves she had fetched from the janitor's closet, along with a bucket full of other cleaning supplies.

"Shut up and clean!" Bayley ordered with as much sternness as she was capable of producing, which wasn't a lot.

"Yes, boss," Seth replied, thoroughly enjoying the banter, as he knew she was, despite the front she was putting on. He set about removing cardboard boxes full of cans of soda from the metal shelving so that he could give it a wipe down. Meanwhile, Bayley went to work at the other end of the room, the so-called manager's office. It was more of a desk and a filing cabinet at the end of the storage room than it was an office, but it was at least a place for the manager to operate from.

"Seth, look what I found," Bayley said a couple of minutes later. She had been clearing the desk of the junk that the previous owners had left scattered on top of it.

Turning around to see what she had found, Seth saw that she was holding up a roll of silver duct tape. He knew exactly what she was thinking right away. She loved to role play the victim in various scenarios that involved her being tied up and gagged with tape. It was a strange fetish in Seth's opinion, but he had grown used to it since they had been together, and now enjoyed his role in it a lot too. "Interesting," he replied, stretching the word out.

Bayley felt herself getting turned by the thoughts that were running through her mind, but she tried her best to play it cool. She put the tape on the end of the desk and said, "I'll just leave it there."

Seth waited a moment after she resumed her cleaning. Once she had her back to him, he cautiously walked over to her, being careful that she didn't notice what he was doing. Once he was in range, he grabbed her from behind, locking an arm around her waist and pulling her tightly against him as he clamped his other hand over her mouth - the other thing she really liked him to do. She let out a surprised grunt into his palm, and he took pleasure in feeling her quiver in his grasp. That was exactly the response he had hoped for. "If you're good, maybe I could take that tape home," he whispered into her ear. Slowly, he removed his hand from her mouth to allow her to speak, but kept his other arm tight around her.

"What if I'm bad?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

"Then I'll definitely take it home."


	8. Chapter 8

Since getting home from Bean and Gone, Seth had only been able to think about one thing: the way Bayley had acted when she had found the roll of duct tape on the desk in the office. Knowing how much she liked to play bondage games with tape, he had grabbed her and 'threatened' to bring it home with him.

Sure enough, the roll was now sitting in one of the plastic bags full of odds and ends that they had brought back from the coffee shop, which were currently sitting out in the hallway. While it was true that the tape/bondage/mouth covering fetish was more Bayley's than his, he was still turned on by what was to come, and raring to go.

The sexual tension in the dining room had been palpable while they had eaten a light dinner. Although the conversation had flowed as smoothly as ever, Seth had been able to tell that Bayley was lacking focus on it as much as he was. When she took their plates through to the kitchen to wash up – a task that she bizarrely refused to entrust to a dishwasher – he waited a couple more minutes for his meal to settle in his stomach before getting up from the dining table.

His plan was to go and get the duct tape from the hallway, then sneak into the kitchen with it and surprise her while her attention was on doing the dishes. She liked to be surprised, especially if he mixed some role play in with it.

Pausing in the dining room doorway, he listened to make sure Bayley was still busy in the kitchen. Yes, he could hear her putting things on the drainer. Good.

Walking slowly so as not to give himself away, he went across the main part of the entrance hall, past the marble staircase, and over towards the front door, where the bags had been dumped.

When he reached the group of four bags, he took a moment to remember which of them he had put the tape into. The blue one. It had definitely been the blue one. Leaning down, he rummaged through the blue bag's contents. There was no tape in there.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

Bayley's stern voice right behind him made him jump.

"Don't turn around," she ordered as he started to do exactly that.

"Okay," he replied, making it sound like he had been caught robbing the place and she had a gun on him. He had quickly cottoned on to the fact that he wasn't going to be the one in charge on this particular night after all.

"Looking for this?" Bayley asked him in a taunting manner. Her right hand appearing in front of him, holding the roll of duct tape. She still had the purple rubber gloves on that she had been wearing to do the dishes.

"I, uh, wasn't looking for..."

"Shut up," she ordered, reaching around and covering his mouth with her other gloved hand, pulling him tightly against her in the same motion. He had already had a feeling that was the reason she had kept the gloves on; she didn't like covering his mouth with a bare hand if she could help it, thanks to what she still insisted was not OCD. At least she had made the effort to dry the gloves first. "I'll tell you when you can talk, or if you can talk. Is that clear?"

"Mmm hmm," he mumbled into her hand, starting to get turned on by the dominant way she was acting, even if he did prefer things the other way around.

"Hands behind your back," she instructed next. "And remember, I don't want to hear a word out of you."

He obeyed the instruction to put his hands behind his back, knowing what was coming next. Sure enough, the hand was removed from his mouth and he heard duct tape being stretched out from the roll.

"Just wait a minute," he said, specifically because he knew it would 'anger' her.

"What did I just tell you?" she demanded as she set about wrapping the tape multiple times around his wrists, plenty tight enough to restrain him, but not tight enough to cut off circulation. The games were always taken seriously, but inflicting actual pain was never part of the fun. Neither of them were into that kind of thing.

"You said to shut up, but I don't think I can. I want to know what you're going to do?"

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." When she was apparently satisfied with the multiple layers of strong binding around his wrists, he felt a jerk as she tore the roll away from it.

"Okay, you tied my wrists. I'm not going anywhere."

"Oh my God!" Bayley squealed at the nerve of him daring to speak again. "You've left me no choice." Tearing a long strip of tape from the roll, she smoothed it down as best she could over his mouth. "That should shut you up for a minute."

Having his mouth taped was a new experience for Seth. It was usually her thing. Honestly, it didn't work well on him, since the tape was pretty much just stuck to his beard. But he decided to play along and stay quiet.

"Now get upstairs. Move!" she ordered him. Her strident manner was reminiscent of the old Commissioner Martinez character in some ways.

Seth started walking towards the staircase.

"Don't try anything stupid," Bayley warned him. "Go on, upstairs, then into the bedroom."

Feeling frustrated that he hadn't been allowed to turn around and see her, Seth was ushered up the stairs, the occasional gentle push encouraging him to get a move on.

"Good, now lie on the bed on your front," she instructed when they entered the bedroom.

Seth did as he was told, crawling up the bed so that his head was resting on the pillow.

"Good," was the verdict again. Bayley was still making sure he couldn't see her. It had to be deliberate on her part. "Now lie still," she told him. She lifted his right hip with one hand and used the other to awkwardly unbutton and unzip his jeans. It took her a full minute to pull them off him, but she eventually managed it. He lay there compliantly the whole time.

"That's better. Now you're starting to do as you're told," she said, her tone somewhere between happy and condescending.

Seth heard more tape being unwound from the roll, and felt her stick the loose end to one of his ankles. Holding them together and lifting them with one hand, she wrapped tape around them with the other. When they were as well bound as his wrists, she dropped them back to the bed.

"That's the first job done," she said, pleased with her handiwork. She walked around to put the tape down on the nightstand, now that she was apparently done with it.

Still lying on his stomach, Seth looked up at her, seeing that she still had her apron on from washing the dishes. As soon as he took that in, she set about removing it. "Let's get that off, shall we?" she asked him rhetorically, keeping eye contact with him. He could clearly see how turned on she was by the situation she had him in.

The apron was tossed aside, then Bayley took off her top, followed by her pants. She was left standing there in only her black underwear and the purple gloves. "Now I think we're ready," she said, licking her lips in a sultry manner.

Seth worked the loose tape off his mouth and said, "Fuck, you're beautiful," as if talking to a stranger, not his fiancée. "One day, I'd love to tape you up like this."

Bayley looked unimpressed. "What you'd love to do is irrelevant at this point, isn't it? What matters is what I'm going to do. Now turn over and sit up."

Before he could obey, she pulled the loose tape off his beard, crumpled it up and threw it away. "Won't be needing that anyway," she told him, making it sound almost like a threat. "I said turn over and sit up. Come on, hurry up."

"What do you mean, what you're going to do?" he asked as he complied with the demand, moving awkwardly due to the tape restraints.

Rather than answer him, Bayley got onto the bed and took up a sitting position behind him. He looked back and saw her arrange the pillows to support her back.

"Don't look at me!" she said heatedly when she saw him facing her. "Honestly, I could have caught someone better behaved than you. But then, I guess that makes it more fun. Come here," she said, wrapping her arms around his stomach and dragging him as close to her as he could get, leaving him sitting between her legs, which she wrapped tightly around him.

Now that really was a turn on. Seth felt himself getting rock hard, and she hadn't even really started yet. What had happened so far had been the warm up; the preparation; the foreplay.

Bayley wrapped an arm around his chest to hold him against her, then covered his mouth with her other hand. "You see," she whispered into his ear, "I'm a venomous spider who likes to devour her prey. But I do it slowly, since when I've got prey caught in my web, it can't escape, no matter how much is struggles or tries to squeal for help. You're all mine now."

"Mmmph," Seth grunted into the gloved hand was clamped securely over his mouth. There would be no wriggling out of her grasp, which was of course exactly what she intended. He knew that denying him the ability to talk was a big turn on for her, so he would make sure to try and do exactly that, to further her pleasure.

"That won't help you now," she told him.

With that, she began gently licking the side of his neck. The feeling of her tongue on his skin sent tingles through him, as did the little moans of delight she made while she did it.

"When I'm ready, I can sink my teeth in there," she breathed. "It will be very pleasurable for me. For you, it will be painful, at least if you fight me."

But pleasurable, Seth thought, having experienced it before. The only downside would be the big ass bite mark he would be left with for a week or so afterwards. Right now, though, he didn't give a damn about that.

"Stop struggling!" she told him as he pretended to attempt resisting her. "You're only making it worse for yourself. I could make your demise pleasurable, if I wanted to." To demonstrate what she meant, she removed the arm from around his chest and began to gently stroke his cock over the top of his boxers. Her touch was so fine that he could only just feel it, but he could feel it, and it was amaxing.

An involuntarily moan escaped him, wanting her to do more. His breathing began to get heavier as it was more difficult than usual with her hand over his mouth.

"Sshhh," she whispered into his ear, still rubbing his shaft softly. "There's no rush. We've got all night before I finish you off."

"Mmmmmpphh," Seth protested, struggling against her again.

"No!" she told him sternly. Keeping the hand over his mouth and her legs wrapped around him, she forced him over onto his side so that she was almost lying on top of him. Even if his wrists and ankles hadn't been taped, it would have been a job to get out from underneath her. It was an even more dominant position for her than the previous one had been. "If you're going to struggle, I'm going to have to bite you and allow my poison to subdue you."

Playing his part in her curious roleplay choice as a victim caught in a spider's web, Seth continued to do his best to struggle, not that he could do much of anything anyway.

"Okay, enough is enough," she said impatiently.

He felt her teeth take their first little nibble on his neck, in the same place that she had previously wetted with her tongue. Over the course of the next couple of minutes, her bites grew in intensity, as did her gasps of excitement in between them.

Despite the pain her biting caused, Seth's body was absolutely on fire for her. His moans into her hand were no longer part of the game, they were involuntary reactions of pleasure to what she was doing to him.

"Good," she breathed eventually, giving his neck a final lick. "That should keep you much calmer." She moved off him and sat up, before dragging him back up to sit in front of her as before. Once that was done, she took away the hand that had been covering his mouth and quickly replaced it with the other one.

"Ow," she groaned, flexing her now-free hand against the cramp that had almost set in from having it clamped down for so long.

"Mmmm," Seth sighed into the one covering his mouth, acting like he was very drowsy from the biting, which had supposedly poisoned him.

"Ssshhh. It's nearly over now," she now said soothingly. With the cramp worked out of her hand, she used it to push his boxers down enough to get his cock out. "Ohhh, maybe you were a great catch after all," she purred at the sight of it.

As she began stroking him, Seth closed his eyes, wanting to focus completely on the sensations she was giving him. She really was amazing, bringing him up to his peak ever so slowly.

"Here we go," she purred when she felt him start convulsing, his orgasm approaching.

Grunting like a wild animal into her hand, Seth exploded, shooting his load all over her other hand and his own stomach.

"Oh, baby," she gasped, still working him with her fingers until he had unloaded everything he had.

With that, it was over. Bayley took her hand away from his mouth, allowing him gasp in a few grateful breaths. "Fuck, angel, you're amazing," he panted.

"Not as amazing as you are, baby. I'm so turned on right now, I can't even tell you. I love you so much."

"Give me a minute, and I'll take care of that for you," he promised. "Might as well put my mouth to good use now that I can use it."

"Oh, baby," she purred again, for the second time in a minute. "I'd better untape you." She peeled off her gloves and threw them to the floor.

"Before you do that, give me a kiss," he instructed. He leaned back against her so that she could do as he asked.

Bayley kissed him delicately on the lips, then said, "I'm the happiest girl in the world, Seth. I want us to get married soon."

That took him by surprise, but his immediate reaction was that he wanted the same thing. He knew they were one of those couples who would spend their lives together; he felt it with every fibre of his being. So what was the point in trying to ignore his instincts? "I want that, too," he said. "We could spend tomorrow looking for venues for beach weddings. We've both decided that's what we want, right?"

Hugging him tightly from behind, she said, "Yes! Oh my God, you really want to start looking for somewhere?"

"Yes, angel. I love you, and I want you to be my wife. Bayley Rollins has a nice ring to it."

Bayley nuzzled her head against him. "Yeah, it does."

* * *

 _A/N: I've been wanting to come back to this story for some time because I really do love Seth and Bayley together. But the problem I had was that the Queen's Court concept is so outdated now with current kayfabe. Also, Zelina stories are where it's at for me right now. So, here's what I've decided to do:_

 _This story will end here. When I've finished La Arquitecta (the story I'm currently working on) I will be starting a new story in this world, set a bit further in the future, which will give me a chance to put things on a better footing in terms of what is going on in WWE._

 _It's not an ideal situation by any means, and I know it's a problem of my own making, since I left this story for so long. But I'm doing what I can to make sure this world can continue, as I really don't want to see it abandoned. Thank you for your understanding. :)_


End file.
